Sergei Nakariakov

This new album by Sergei Nakariakov, recorded in the Jesus-Christus-Kirche in Dahlem, south-west Berlin, in August 2010 by the same team that made most of his Teldec recordings, is dedicated to his late mentor, the great Russian trumpeter, Timofei Dokshizer.

Spectacular virtuoso trumpet works are featured alongside smoother works on the flugel horn.

Thus did BBC Music Magazine praise Dedicated to Victims of War and Terror (DE3259), one of two previous Delos albums in which Maestro Constantine Orbelian – longtime Director of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra (MCO) – appears as the featured pianist. The other is Shostakovich – Schnittke: Piano Quintets (DE 1038). The present release, offering engaging concerto performances, is now Orbelian’s third recording for Delos as a pianist. Some fans of Orbelian’s work as conductor may still not be aware of his brilliant career as a concert pianist before he assumed the MCO’s directorship in 1991. Since then – despite his intermittent appearances as a pianist – his immense success as a conductor has overshadowed his reputation as a distinguished keyboard artist. With this sterling reissue, a new generation of listeners should come to appreciate his rare piano mastery. While all of these winning performances are with the MCO, they were recorded in the years just before Orbelian took over the orchestra. The three concertos with single piano were performed under the deft baton of previous MCO director Andrei Korsakov, whose untimely death in 1991 left the vacancy that Orbelian filled. Korean Maestro Nanse Gum expertly conducted the Mozart “Double” Concerto No. 10, also featuring noted American pianist Jonathan Shames. Orbelian’s trumpet partner in the Shostakovich is the Russian superstar Sergei Nakariakov, then only about 12 years old!

Martha Argerich was born on 5th June 1941 in Buenos Aires. Her interest in the piano showed itself when she was three. Vincenzo Scaramuzza, her teacher, impressed on her the importance of feeling and the singing lyrical line – a facet of her playing which remains immediately recognisable. At the age of eight she made her debut concert playing Beethoven’s first concerto and the following year she gave Mozart’s Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466 and Bach’s French Suite in G, BWV 816.

In 1955 her family moved to Europe so that Martha could study with Friedrich Gulda in Austria; in this she was supported by the Argentine government who gave her parents diplomatic posts in their Embassy in Vienna. She won both the Geneva Music and Ferruccio Busoni International Competitions in 1957, but it was her winning the seventh Chopin Piano competition in Warsaw that confirmed her as a major talent at the age of 24.

Her formidable technique has often been compared to that of Horowitz. She is reputed to have learnt Ravel’s Gaspard de la nuit in three days having been told it was extremely difficult. Her solo career lasted for a quarter of a century during which her talent for interpreting the romantic classics, notably Chopin and Liszt, were matched by her brilliance in the 20th century masters Ravel, Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Messiaen. Her decision to limit her performances to chamber music and concerto was taken, as she admitted in interviews, to her feeling of loneliness on stage alone. This has been her career path for the last 30 years and she retains the aura of one of the most brilliant of all pianists of modern generations.

She has been particularly generous in supporting the next generation of artists.

She appears regularly as a jury member at important competitions and her friends and protégées captivate audiences with exquisite performances of chamber music at her festival at Lugano. Now at the age of 70 we can salute her as the phenomenon she undoubtedly is and wish her continued success in all aspects of her life.